In slightly accented Mandarin, the woman declared that Chinese men should marry “us Russian women.” In other videos on Chinese short video platform Douyin, she explains how much she loves Chinese food and touts her country's salts and soaps. “Russians will not deceive the Chinese,” she promises.
However, her lip movements do not quite match the audio in a video recently posted to her account using the name “Ladina”. That's because the video was altered using artificial intelligence by Shade Zaray, an Australian career strategist with more than 1.7 million TikTok followers. Someone dubbed Ziarai's video clip with Mandarin audio to make it seem like she was peddling Russian products.
Welcome to a genre that is thriving on Chinese social media. The AI-manipulated videos feature young women claiming to be Russian to rally support for Sino-Russian relations, stir up patriotic fervor, or make money, sometimes all three at once. .
Although it is unclear who is behind many of the videos, most videos end up directing viewers to product links, suggesting the primary motive is commercial. And the main target group seems to be nationalist Chinese men.
Videos are often tagged with hashtags such as “Russian wife” and “Russian beauty.” The women in the story either explain how great Chinese men are or beg for them to save them from their poverty and less-than-idyllic countries.
Another video features a blonde woman expressing her gratitude for landing in China.
“I'm really jealous of my Chinese friends. You are born with the most precious identity and the most profound and fascinating language in the world,” she wrote on Xiaohongshu, another platform similar to Instagram. said in a video posted.
In another video, a woman is seen thanking the Chinese people for supporting Russia through economic difficulties by buying Russian chocolate. “In the past year, the whole world boycotted Russia and imposed all kinds of restrictions and difficulties on us. China is like a savior,” she says.
These videos looked more natural, with the women's lips in sync with their fluent Mandarin. But they are also fake. These are reconstructed from her YouTube videos posted by Olga Roiec, a university student who makes real-life videos about self-development and a gap year in Germany.
Mr. Loyek does not speak Chinese. And she said in an interview that she would never praise Russia like that. She is from Ukraine and some of her relatives still live there.
The producers of these videos are seeking to capitalize on the market created by China's current moment in geopolitics, technology, and national sentiment.
Relations between Russia and China have deepened significantly in recent years, with their leaders Vladimir V. Putin and Xi Jinping declaring an “unrestricted” partnership in the face of growing hostility from the West. Mr. Putin visited Beijing last week, and Mr. Xi gave him a grand welcome.
The use of foreign faces to praise China also aims to tap into a sense of national pride, or nationalism, among Chinese audiences. As China's censorship environment tightens and more topics become off-limits, nationalist content becomes the most reliable driver of internet traffic.
Chenchen Zhang, a professor of international relations at Britain's Durham University, said that nationalism, like nationalism around the world, often included sexism.
“Representing young white women in a sexually objectified way is a classic metaphor for gendered nationalism, or nationalist sexism,” Professor Chan wrote in an email. “By consuming this content, viewers can reaffirm both nationalism and masculine pride.”
In several videos featuring manipulated portraits of Mr. Gzarai, a fake character addresses viewers as “big brother.” The person also noted that Russia does not sell these products in Japan or South Korea, where relations with China are strained.
The Chinese government often promotes nationalism online, but there is no indication that it has anything to do with deepfake videos (although some local governments have partnered with real Russian women to (promoting similar messages about attractiveness). There is also a small economy of genuine Russian influencers on Chinese social media, many of them young women.
Many video makers may simply be taking advantage of China's embrace of shopping through live streaming and short videos. As AI technology advances, some Chinese companies have already switched from real salespeople to virtual salespeople to cut costs.
Haibin Lu, a professor at Santa Clara University who studies AI governance, said artificially generated videos are a marketing strategy as AI technology advances rapidly and becomes highly accessible to the general public. He said it is likely to become more common.
In an email, Gzarai's management company said the AI-powered edits were of “low quality” and “likely to appear fake” to casual viewers. While some of the account's videos had only a few dozen views, one video in which he discussed marrying a Russian woman had 22,000 views.
That didn't seem to matter. An automated counter displayed on one of the account's videos suggests that the brand of salt being touted has already been purchased 360,000 times across the platform.
When The New York Times contacted Douyin's account with Zaray's manipulated video, the account owner admitted in an audio message that he was the one who created the video. “He sets three: audio, video, mouth. You can make as many videos as you want,” he said before unfriending the reporter.
There are varying levels of sophistication. Some of the fake women look completely computer-generated, have stiff movements, and look like glorified sims. Some of them are very good, such as one featuring Mr. Loyek's portrait.
“Even though I knew it wasn't me, the reality was scary,” Loyek said. Recently, she learned that over 30 social media accounts in China had plagiarized her images. “When I decided to create a YouTube channel, I was aware of the dangers of deepfakes, but I thought it was primarily a concern for famous politicians and entertainment figures. We now know that anyone who posts video footage online could be affected.”
Loiek reported Xiaohongshu's account and created a YouTube video about his experience. Eventually, most of the profiles using her likeness were shut down.
In recent weeks, social media platforms have stepped up their scrutiny, removing AI videos or adding labels to some. China was the first country to enact regulations on generative AI, and in theory some of its policies are stricter than those in the West.
But countries around the world are struggling to enforce the rules. Detecting fraud can be particularly difficult in China, where China has a closed internet environment and many foreign social media outlets are banned.
Foreign influencers are likely to file copyright infringement claims without knowing that their images are being used on Chinese social media. Chinese platforms may also not be using foreign content when checking for AI manipulation, said a 35-year-old man who ran two accounts featuring AI-generated Russian women. said. The man, who gave only his last name, said he was earning about $1,000 a month from the account before closing it in March over fears of increased regulation.
But it continues to increase. And while Russia may be the hot topic right now, whatever the next trend is, the practice will likely spread quickly, said Lu, the Santa Clara University professor.
“The people behind this will manipulate any topic to get people's attention,” he said. “Teach parents how to get into a top school.'' To young women, “How to become beautiful.'' In the future, everyone will use AI technology to customize topics and create videos that appeal to specific audiences. ”